Indian IT workers love to hoard data, files: Study

The “Data Hoarders” study by the US information management company Veritas Technologies, showed that majority of respondents store data that could be potentially harmful to their organisations. These include unencrypted personal records, job applications to other companies, unencrypted company secrets and embarrassing employee correspondence. In India, the research was conducted among 400 professionals and ITDMs to look into how individuals manage data. 

“The research shows that 92 percent of the ITDMs in India feel that their company is a digital hoarder and if left unaddressed, this could lead to potential cost and productivity implications,” said Balaji Rao, Managing Director, Veritas Technologies, India. Almost half of the respondents (48 per cent) would rather work weekends for three months than get rid of all of their digital files. Meanwhile in India, 39 per cent would rather throw out all of their clothes than all of their digital files. The findings highlighted that ITDMs are hoarding their digital files and saving 55 per cent on average of all the data they create. Many office professionals (68 per cent) admit that they would not trust a data hoarder to turn in a project on time, which is significantly more than office professionals globally (48 percent) and more than any other country surveyed. Employees struggle to determine if data has long-term importance or value.